Day 8: Flight back to Amsterdam & Epilogue

Ivalo Travel Blog

Return journeys are normally boring to do. They are also boring to write about and I guess they must be as boring to read. So I'm going to keep this short. Got up, packed our bags, had our last breakfast, took the bus to the airport, flew to Helsinki, flew to Amsterdam, took the train to Eindhoven, picked up the car, drove home and arrived around half past eight in the evening. Well, maybe I should mention one thing. During the flight from Helsinki to Amsterdam the girl who sat next to me asked me something in Finnish. I asked her if she spoke English and she asked me how long the flight was. Two and a half hours, I informed her. She seemed quite distressed about this and when I asked why she admitted she was afraid of flying.

Last views of Lapland.

I ended up talking to her for most of the flight to comfort her and we had the most interesting conversations. She was a student who was on her way to Amsterdam for a 4 day trip. She was still applying for her next study and was trying to get into human rights organisations as a trainee. What a nice and fascinating little lady. Our chats seemed to work because she told me she normally would hyperventilate and cry. I told her I was glad she didn't because I would probably end up doing the same thing. ;-)

Now, how do I look back on this journey ? With some mixed feelings. I had booked this trip because of the husky safari, which proved to be everything I'd expected it to be and more. I hadn't thought I'd bond so much with the dogs and if I'd taken a 5 day safari I'd probably been crying like a little kid when I had to say goodbye.

Last views of Lapland.

Nevertheless, it's very probable that I'll do a longer safari sometime in the future. Also because of another reason why I need to return to the arctic circle: for the northern lights. Weather conditions had prevented us from seeing them this week. That's nature for you, there's nothing you can do about it.

The snowmobile safari was amazing as well and is also on the do-again list. The reindeer safari was not one of those highlights, especially not when I saw the prices that are charged for this activity (110 Euro per person). Since there's no guarantee of northern lights driving out at crawling pace into the woods 'hunting for the lights' is just plain stupid. It's a good thing that Max was an interesting person to chat with, otherwise this would have been a real waste of time.

Last views of Lapland (Ivalo Airport).

The hotel was very mediocre and the food dreadful. Also, Saariselka isn't the worst but most certainly not the best place to get stuck in for a few days either. If it wasn't for the Panimo pub we'd been bored to death. Sure, if you like cross-country skiing this place will keep you happy for days, but we're not interested. At this time of year SaariselkÃ¤ is mostly filled with skiing Finns in their 50s or 60s. Not the most interesting crowd to mingle with either.Getting to more interesting places like Inari proved impossible, so in hindsight I should have organised this trip differently myself. A change of surroundings appeals more to our sense of adventure and would have made the trip more diverse and exciting. It's a good thing we got out to Kamisak for a day.

Now, this might give you the impression that we had a bad vacation, but we really had the time of our lives most of the days. Paul was as great a travel companion as ever and one of the few people I know of his age that don't hesitate when I suggest to go down a 1200 meter sled run. ;-)